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Bauxite miner and alumina and aluminium producer Alumina said the future of its loss-making aluminium smelter at Point Henry would depend upon its long-term prospects.

Alcoa, which is the manager of Alumina and Alcoa's joint-venture company Alcoa World Alumina and Chemicals (AWAC), is currently reviewing the Pont Henry smelter at Geelong in Victoria.

The review is expected to be completed in June.

Alumina chief executive John Bevan on Wednesday said the Point Henry smelter was an efficient but old smelter, built in 1963, and it also was suffering from the high Australian dollar and low aluminium prices.

"The aim of the review is not about the short term: trying to fix things as it relates to the conditions today," Mr Bevan told reporters after Alumina's annual general meeting.

"Clearly, making losses is something that we don't want to do.

"But it's more about to think through what the long-term future is of it (the Point Henry smelter), and how we can make it more viable.

"And for it to be viable, it ultimately needs to be modernised."

Mr Bevan said the aluminium price would go up and down, but the company needed to consider where the Australian dollar would go in the long term and the costs associated with the smelter.

Mr Bevan earlier told shareholders that 2012 had started with weak pricing and an uncertain market, due to the macro-economic outlook for Europe.

Overall demand for aluminium looked to grow by five to seven per cent in 2012, down from 2011 levels, but was still growing strongly.

Growth outside China was expected to be around three per cent.

Alumina chairman John Pizzey told shareholders that the bauxite, alumina and aluminium markets were experiencing significant change as China increased its share of world production.

China was importing significant amounts of bauxite, mainly from Indonesia, to feed its expanding alumina industry.

Mr Pizzey said the Indonesian government had recently announced possible restrictions or tariffs on exported bauxite.

He said AWAC, the world's largest producer of bauxite, owned deposits in Australia, Brazil, Jamaica and Guinea, and the recently developed Juruti bauxite deposit in Brazil provided strategic opportunities to increase production.

Mr Pizzey also referred to the federal government's carbon tax, which comes into effect from July 1, 2012.

The Alumina board was focused on the long-term impact of the carbon tax on its competitive position.

"In this global marketplace, any carbon price mechanism which increases the costs of producing alumina and aluminium in Australia, but not in other countries, will shift production and emissions from Australia offshore," he said.

"It is highly likely that replacement production will be substantially coal-based, and in China."